On November 5th and 7th, the Global Network Initiative (GNI) hosted two separate, virtual calls designed to facilitate stakeholder engagement in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) for an international company operating in Myanmar. The engagements focused on identifying human rights impacts of the company’s operations in the country and discussing recommendations to address these positive and negative impacts in line with international human rights standards. GNI took care in structuring these engagements to identify and mitigate the potential risks to all participants from their participation.
The GNI Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy calls on stakeholders to engage in collaborative approaches to problem solving and explore ways in which the collective learning from multiple stakeholders can be used to advance freedom of expression and privacy. GNI facilitates multistakeholder consultation for both member and non-member companies on issues that are salient to business and human rights, particularly freedom of expression and privacy. GNI’s role in the meeting was as an independent intermediary body, enabling the sharing of perspectives across stakeholders in service of protecting and upholding human rights. The company will endeavor to share feedback to consulted stakeholders in due course.